Uranus (Ouranos; Heaven) Greek The personification of heaven and the starlit sky.

Uranus (Ouranos; Heaven) Greek The personification of heaven and the starlit sky. Uranus was the son of Gaia (Earth) and with her the father of the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus did not care for his offspring and banished them to the underworld. Gaia, mourning for her children, bade her son Cronus to wound and mutilate Uranus. This Cronus did, with a flint sickle made by Gaia. From the spilled blood of Uranus sprang the Furies, the Gigantes (Giants), and the goddess Aphrodite. Uranus, defeated and wounded, left the Earth to the Titans. Before he died, he prophesied that Cronus, in his turn, would be overthrown by one of his sons. His prophecy came true when Zeus deposed Cronus. The Greek poet Hesiod tells the story of Uranus. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the solar system. The English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the gas giant in 1781. Uranus was the first planet to receive the name of a Greek god. Uranus has five moons, none of which is named after a Greek or Roman deity or hero, unlike the moons of other planets.